News Comment/COMENTARI AL DIA

Barcelona Pyrenees 2022: The referendum on the Games will probably win because of the good memories of Barcelona 92 putting Catalonia on the map. Below: Spanglish Madrid: 203 free golf lessons paid in 2013 by Madrid town hall to the mayoressa Botella and Botella’s hubbie Mr. Aznar.

After the laughable Olympics of Madrid, rejected for the third time, what should Barcelona 22 do? Barcelona 92 became such a surprise success that all Olympic cities compare to, like museum cities take Bilbao’s Guggenheim as the standard.

Mrs. Aznar or Ana Botella, the Madrid mayoress, was the figure of fun inviting the Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires to a relaxing cup of “cafe con leche” in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, where the Inquisition burned its victims and bulls were tortured to death, stark reminders of Castilian intolerance and violence. Mr. Botella or Jose Maria Aznar, was a laughable figure as the Death Trio of Bush, Blair and Aznar in the Azores to invade Iraq. He is still a stand-up clown as a member of the board of Murdoch’s media empire in New York. Like all Madrid he only speaks español, translated from the English for Spanish, a language that does not appear anywhere in the Spanish Constitution. Ex-Constitutional Spaniards like Aznar and Botella speak relaxing Spanglish because Spaniards are so universal they don’t need languages. Diari de Girona editorializes: “Madrid 2020 was not just an illusion, but an opportunity for the Spanish capital and State to remake its image, going through very low times because of the economic crisis and the banking problems known all over the world. But to come out last of the three cities was a stiff blow to take. The Spanish Olympic Committee is still recovering from the defeat, but must resolve urgently if Barcelona can submit their candidacy to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. If this happens, it would be a unique case, holding both Summer and Winter Olympics. Madrid had much at stake but lost, and the path taken (and investments made!) have led to a dead end. Two issues should be discussed. First, if it is a good time to embark on a project of this magnitude. Second, the public consultation. Oslo has done one this week, and Munich will vote soon, while the inhabitants of the Swiss cities of Davos and St. Moritz already voted against.” A correction here: Davos and St. Moritz voted yes but the rest of the canton of the Grisons said no because of the cost. Unlike Madrid which has misspent nine billion, nine times the cost of Terminal 1 at Barcelona, which is a roaring success! The triumphalism of Madrid is a reminder of Paris as the director of Diari de Girona Jordi Xargayo explains: “The Barcelona 92 team passed almost unnoticed. Not Chirac. His entrance, surrounded by a huge entourage of bodyguards, was the staging of French grandeur. Awesome. Chirac had the double role of mayor of Paris and prime minister of France. The next day, the Olympics went to Barcelona. The Catalan capital had no Chirac. Instead a man more discrete in form, but more powerful on that stage: Joan Antoni Samaranch.” That day I was having lunch at a conference in Montpellier. When they announced that their hated Paris had lost to Barcelona the French of the Midi, instead of a relaxing cup of “cafe au lait,” celebrated with champagne, French of course.